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Scoreboard

Rossow driving
Kyla McGuire
77
Winner Biola BIO 16-11,12-9 PacWest
72
Fresno Pacific FPU 10-17,8-13 PacWest
Winner
Biola BIO
16-11,12-9 PacWest
77
Final
72
Fresno Pacific FPU
10-17,8-13 PacWest
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Biola BIO 37 40 77
Fresno Pacific FPU 26 46 72

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Biola Closes Well To Lock-Up 5-seed

FRESNO, Calif. --- It was certainly a roller coaster ride on Monday night in Fresno, but the Biola Eagles managed to do just enough to earn a third-straight win by beating Fresno Pacific 77-72.

It was a big ask for the Eagles team to turn right around from its 113-102 whirlwind win on Saturday afternoon and then drive up five hours to Fresno and face one of the most athletic teams in the conference.

Head Coach Dr. Dave Holmquist's team was unfazed, coming out of the opening tip with incredible energy and building itself a massive first-half lead. Biola scored 13 of the first 17 points to mount a nine-point lead almost immediately.

Biola made five of their first seven shots from the field to mount the early advantage, and they were doing just about all of that damage from inside the paint, where they seemed to be working around contact with ease. 

Over the next five minutes, Fresno Pacific mounted a mini-rally to get the game back to within five by the time 10 minutes had elapsed in the first half.

Then things turned on its head and everything that could go right went right for BU and everything that could go wrong went wrong for the Sunbirds. Biola went on a 17-point run from the 9:46 mark to the 3:44 mark to stake a huge advantage.

No team scored between 6:59 and 5:10, showing that it was not just the FPU offense that was capable of slipping into neutral for long stretches of time. That point would be further driven home from 3:44 until halftime as Biola went frigid from the field.

The Eagles, fresh off that 17-point run, saw their 21-point advantage cut all the way down to just 11 points because they went 0-for-5 and committed a pair of turnovers over that final three minutes and change. This breathed new life into the Sunbirds that would actually carry over to the start of the second half.

Biola finally got off the schneid just about a minute into the second period when Jesse Elrod converted a pair of free throws. That was a valuable source of scoring for Biola all night long, going 19-for-23 from the line. 

Biola pushed the lead up to 14 with a quick run before Fresno Pacific found their stride on the offensive end once again, looking primarily to their leading scorer Aamondae Coleman and three-point specialist Spencer Heimerdinger. 

FPU rattled off an eight-minute stretch where they dominated on both ends to set up an 20-3 run and take their very first lead of the ballgame, and ultimately their largest lead of the ballgame at 49-46. Heimerdinger had two three-pointers to tie with Aidrian Antunez for the team-lead in points (6) during what felt like it'd be the game-changing run. 

Biola was without the lead for just over three minutes, 12:20 - 9:09, but it felt like an absolute eternity, especially knowing this was a game Holmquist's team had led by over 20 points not too long ago.

Finally, at 9:09 it was a Jesse Elrod layup that put Biola ahead 53-51 and the team would never again trail after that. They can thank the work of Chris Rossow for that, too. The junior point guard was adept at orchestrating this BU offense and creating easy shots for his teammates all night long.

None came easier than the bucket that virtually iced the game for this Eagles' team inside of the final minute when Rossow came out of a timeout, cut to the basket with tremendous speed and niftily dumped it off to Michael Bagatourian for a slam dunk. That bucket made it 73-67 and put the game out of reach, especially considering how good the Eagles were shooting their free throws.

Rossow ended the night with four assists to go with 16 points and four rebounds. Jesse Elrod led Biola's scoring effort with 17 points on a fantastic 7-for-11 shooting clip. 

Alex Wright led the rebounding effort with 13, helping Biola to a 37-35 advantage in that area. Eleven of Wright's 13 came on the defensive end as he really helped stymie any potential rhythm FPU could get in, especially late in the game. Wright is second in the PacWest in rebounding this season and tonight had his fifth double-digit rebounding effort.

It was not just rebounding that was helping Wright to be a plus player on the defensive end. The sophomore guard put up a career-high in blocks with four. The most he's had in any other game this season is two.

Michael Bagatourian (16) and Whitten Dominguez (11) joined Rossow and Elrod in double-figures scoring-wise. Dominguez was one of a few Eagles who had tremendous efficiency from the field despite the low-volume shooting. He was 3-for-4 from the floor. Solomon Ruddell was the other standout in that area, going 3-for-3 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the line to put up eight points.

In the game, Bagatourian surpassed 1,000 career points. He sits at 1,014 in his three-year career.

The win locks up the no. 5 seed in the PacWest Tournament for Biola. That means they are likely to face Chaminade in the opening round and if they win they'd move on to face Point Loma or Azusa Pacific. It's possible the Eagles will draw Concordia Irvine instead, who's one game up on Chaminade with both teams having two games left to play. Concordia does own the tiebreaker over the Silverswords though.

Biola (16-11; 12-9 PacWest) has just one game left to play, and it will indeed be against those Concordia Irvine Eagles. BU hosts CUI (20-9; 14-6) for Senior Night this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. 
 
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